Desperate (Divinyls album)

Desperate
Studio album by Divinyls
Released	1983
Recorded	1981-1983
Genre	Rock New wave Pub rock
Length	30:38 (Australian release) 33:25 (International release)
Label	Chrysalis Records
Producer	Mark Opitz
Divinyls chronology
Monkey Grip (1982) Desperate (1983) What a Life! (1985)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Desperate is the debut studio album and second overall album by Australian rock band Divinyls, released in 1983 by Chrysalis Records. The album contains the hits "Boys in Town", "Science Fiction" and "Siren (Never Let You Go)".

Background

Divinyls formed in 1980, founded by Mark McEntee and fronted by lead singer Christina Amphlett. After scoring several gigs, they were discovered by Australian director Ken Cameron. This led to Divinyls providing the entire soundtrack for his 1982 film Monkey Grip. Amphlett was also given a supporting role in the film, playing a temperamental rock singer loosely based on herself, fronting a band played by other Divinyls members. In the film, the band performed their debut single "Boys in Town", as well as other songs "Only Lonely", "Elsie", "Only You", "Girlfriends" and "Gonna Get You", the latter being the first appearance of them in the film. The soundtrack Music from Monkey Grip was acknowledged as a Divinyls album, and when released in 1982, it made the top twenty-five of the Australian Albums Chart.

"Boys in Town" was a success in Australia where it made the top ten, peaking at number eight in 1981. The next year "Science Fiction" was released and was also a success, peaking at number thirteen. When Desperate was released, it climbed the albums chart and eventually peaked at number five. In addition, it proved to be among the top twenty most successful albums of 1983, ranking in at number seventeen according to the Kent Music Report end of year chart.

The track listing of Desperate differed between the Australian release and the international version. Because Divinyls had already released the Monkey Grip soundtrack, which contained the songs performed in the film, in particular the single "Boys in Town", they were not included on the original Australian release of Desperate. This meant that "Science Fiction" was released as the official lead single. On the international release of Desperate, some of the songs from the Monkey Grip soundtrack were included as official album tracks, such as "Boys in Town", "Only Lonely", "Only You" and "Elsie".

The majority of the songs on Desperate were written by Christina Amphlett and/or Mark McEntee except "Siren (Never Let You Go)", which was written by band member Bjarne Ohlin, and "I'll Make You Happy", which was a cover of the original 1966 song by The Easybeats.

Caroline Records^[2] announced that a remastered CD version of the original Desperate album was released on February 5, 2008.

Track listing (Australian release)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"I'll Make You Happy"	Harry Vanda, George Young	3:21
2.	"Science Fiction"	Christina Amphlett, Mark McEntee	3:32
3.	"Casual Encounter"	Amphlett, McEntee	3:05
4.	"Victoria"	McEntee	3:22
5.	"Siren (Never Let You Go)"	Bjarne Ohlin	2:28
6.	"Motion"	Amphlett, McEntee	3:16
7.	"Ring Me Up"	Amphlett, McEntee	3:07
8.	"Take A Chance"	Amphlett, McEntee	3:23
9.	"Sahara Rock"	Amphlett, McEntee	2:35
10.	"Don't You Go Walking"	McEntee	6:09

Track listing (International release)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Boys in Town"	Christina Amphlett, Mark McEntee	2:50
2.	"Only Lonely"	Amphlett, McEntee	3:15
3.	"Science Fiction"	Amphlett, McEntee	3:32
4.	"Siren (Never Let You Go)"	Bjarne Ohlin	2:28
5.	"Elsie"	Amphlett, McEntee	6:42
6.	"Only You"	Amphlett, McEntee	2:48
7.	"Ring Me Up"	Amphlett, McEntee	3:07
8.	"Victoria"	McEntee	3:19
9.	"Take A Chance"	Amphlett, McEntee	3:23
10.	"I'll Make You Happy"	Harry Vanda, George Young	3:21

Charts

Chart (1983) Peak position Australian Albums Chart[3] 5

End of Year Charts End of Year Chart (1983) Position Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart[4] 17

Personnel

• Christina Amphlett — vocals, writer
• Mark McEntee — vocals, guitar, writer
• Bjarne Ohlin — vocals, guitar, keyboards, writer
• Richard Harvey — drums
• Rick Grossman — bass
• Bob Clearmountain — mixer
• Jeff Hendrickson — engineer
• Malcolm Pollack — engineer
• Mark Opitz — producer

References

1. ^ Allmusic review
2. ^ http://www.carolinerecords.com/
3. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinyls_discography
4. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Top_25_albums_for_1983_in_Australia